Underage sting leads to delay in 331 Club liquor license saga
By Dan Haugen
Northeast Beat Editor
A neighborhood bar that was already under the city’s thumb for license and entertainment issues has once again run into trouble with inspectors, this time for serving alcohol to a minor.
A City Council committee had just approved a long sought after liquor license upgrade for the 331 Club, when the following day a bartender failed a city underage compliance check.
The full City Council vote on the liquor license has been on hold since the April 19 violation, and the bar also faces a fine and possibly other penalties.
A meeting is scheduled for Thursday to determine the full scope of punishment for failing the check, the second time the bar has done so in 24 months.
“It was really unfortunate timing,†said Jarret Oulman, the 331 Club’s manager.
The day before the violation, Oulman said he listened to council members make positive remarks about the club and the license upgrade.
Now, if the club is able to get the class A liquor license, which would fully restore its ability to host live music and performance, Oulman expects there’ll be more strings attached.
“I’m assuming that the conditions are going to change because of this,†he said.
Linda Roberts, the city’s lead license inspector, said her department takes serving alcohol to minors very seriously and that it’s addressed her department’s core values. A third offense within two years can result in revocation of a license.
“The city’s hope is that we can develop a corrective action plan to prevent revoking anyone’s license,” Roberts said.
Oulman said the bartender asked for the minor’s ID and simply did the math wrong. The birth date on the driver’s license showed the person was three months away from turning 21.
A couple weeks earlier the bar’s staff went through a training for checking IDs, Oulman said. He said he’s also talking with police about ways to improve compliance, including possibly adding a door person on weekends.
The violation is serious because it’s the second time the club has failed an ID sting in 24 months. Oulman said it failed another on June 8, 2005, shortly after the club opened. It’s passed two others in the same time period.
The bar was already fined $1,000 for failing the check, and a meeting with city staff Thursday will decide how much more it has to pay, Oulman said. He’s said he’s been told the bar could face an additional fine as high as $10,000 and also might have to close on certain dates, he added.
“I’m a little bit nervous,†he said. “It makes the whole license upgrade really take a back seat to the issue at hand.â€
Council Member Diane Hofstede, who represents Ward 3 in Northeast, said she’s a strong supporter of the 331 Club, but it was a serious violation and until it’s resolved the license matter will not move forward.
“My feeling is that we’re not harassing the 331,†Hofstede said. “We’re trying to work with them so that they will be more successful, and encourage them to look at what causes violations so it does not happen again.â€
The ordeal comes at an inconvenient time for the bar, which is trying to formalize its ability to host live music and performances.
A compliant last fall about a burlesque show at the bar led city inspectors to ban amplified music at the club for most of the winter. The bar’s liquor license did not match what’s needed to host live entertainment.
The music was plugged in again this spring after the club convinced inspectors that live music had been performed at the bar for longer than the city regulation was in place. A legal nonconforming-use permit says the bar is grandfathered in from the license rule.
Oulman said they’re now able to do most of what they want to do with the permit, but he would like to make it official by getting the liquor license to match.
“It’s basically protecting us from anything like this ever happening again,†he said. “You don’t know when city staff turns over or when they might relax or tighten regulation.â€
A class A liquor license would also let the bar to bring back the burlesque show, which it isn’t currently allowed to host.
“Through this whole process we’ve been doing everything we can to make this right,†Oulman said. “It’s just too bad. I think everybody wants to see this wrapped up.â€
Email This Article
Print This Article
Filed under: City Hall, Food and Drink, Music, Sheridan
I cannot believe the city of Minneapolis has the time and resources for this petty sting. The 331 club is an asset to both NE Minneapolis and the city in general. (The suburbs do not have either the quality or variety of music and art work that 331 offers. The 331 also welcomes neighbbors with a freindly safe envirnment that previous owners did not provide)
Entrapping a busy bartender with a patron 3 months shy of her 21st birthday is simply vile. This type of sting shows contempt for people simply trying to do their work.
This is absurd.
I will save the rhetoricals regarding one’s ability to die for this country but not have a beer in it…however; As a citizen of the 5th Precinct I can tell you this is absolutely a waste of my tax money. While I see no foot patrols in Northeast neighborhoods, on Central, on Hennepin, on Lowry, on Broadway I now see that those officers who could be out assisting the public are being tasked with babysitting. The only time I see an officer on foot in our neighborhood is when they are walking from the station to their car to drive back to Maplewood.
Those caught drinking underage: take your punishment but do not assist in this charade and waste. When the MPD asks you to participate in a setup like this, be selfless and DECLINE.
A friend of mine was going to go to the 331 Club last night and apparently there was a guy with an electronic card reader at the door. While I’m sure the 331 Club’s intentions are simply to deter underage drinking and to maintain compliance with the law, many card readers easily can record more information than a birth date. I don’t necessarily want my information to be recorded by a third party about where I’m visiting without my consent.
Again, I’m trusting that the 331 Club is only doing this to comply with the law, but I would prefer a human visually checking my ID and not a device reading the information stored on my license.
Here’s another take from the southern suburbs on license scanning for age verification: http://www.lazylightning.org/node/110
Aaron, sounds like you’re concerned about what people call “big brother.” It isn’t some sort of gov’t program trying to steal your DL info - they already have it! All of them! If some bar has your birthdate and knows your first name is really Lloyd it’s also not an issue.
You pay some bills by credit card don’t you? And you trust the douche at Best Buy isn’t recording your card information, right?
I don’t know you but your bar habits are less than interesting to anyone. The card reader has been in place in most cities (larger than Des Moines) for many years.
A card reader is not fool-proof. Nor does in remove the server’s obligation to check for ID’s. At $1500 or so, it’s a cheaper way of maintaining quality control and keeping you liquor license. Readers such as this are already used in several places in Minneapolis which sell alcohol.